MEXICAN BOY HOLDS UP MOTH COVERED IN CRUDE OIL, 1998-08-27 (photo)

TO GO WITH BC-MEXICO-ENVIRONMENT - 15 year old Abraham Contreras Esteban holds up a moth covered in crude oil which he picked out from an open pool containing run off from a Pemex (Petroleos Mexicanos) processing facility in Cunduacan in the southern state of Tabasco August 13. The run off is piped to this pool which residents and environmentalists say has no containment to stop the toxins from leaking into the subsoil and water table. Local farmers also say that when it rains hard, the pool overflows, flooding their crop plantations. Many of the areas surrounding oil extraction and processing facilities in the state of Tabasco have been deeply scared by years of the state oil copmany working without environmental regulations. AW/SV